


One Single Thread of Gold Tied Me to You

by dandelionsknight



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Light Angst, a dash of hurt/comfort, a reference to blake's past with adam, beacon academy days, bloom into you crossover!, incredibly gay yearning and pining, janurwby collab, you can still read even if you know nothing about bloom into you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29142576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelionsknight/pseuds/dandelionsknight
Summary: When Yang brushes her lips against Blake's, just the lightest touch makes Blake’s whole body snap to attention. Even if she doesn’t have feelings for her, she can’t deny that Yang possess her own gravity, makes any space she’s in bend and distort toward her. This close, one of Yang’s hands braced against the wall and the other resting on her hip, eyes the softest color of lilac she’s ever seen, it’s a wonder Blake even remembers her own name.Yang kisses her hungrily, with a quiet desperation Blake’s come to expect. She always kisses her like she’s expecting Blake to change her mind about their arrangement, and this is the last time she’ll ever get to. As if she would ever walk away now.*A Bloom Into You crossover fic where Yang loves Blake almost immediately, and Blake wants to stay by her partner’s side, even though she swears she doesn’t know what love is.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Bumbleby - Relationship
Comments: 13
Kudos: 83





	One Single Thread of Gold Tied Me to You

**Author's Note:**

> This was a collaboration for the last days of JanuRWBY, so go check out the art my friend [The_Descolada](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Descolada) made of the running scene in this fic! Find it [here on Twitter](https://twitter.com/The_Descolada/status/1356386078928891907?s=20) and [here on Tumblr](https://the-descolada.tumblr.com/post/641962239401787392/janurwby-day-32-collab-dandelionsknight-and-i) and give them some love!

Blake stretches onto her tiptoes to reach the flags on the highest shelf of the storage shed. In late spring, the shed is hot and dusty, and she wrinkles her nose to keep from sneezing just as her fingers brush the flags she’s looking for.

“Need a hand?”

Yang is poking her head in the doorway, grinning at Blake. As she steps inside, Blake would’ve liked to scowl at her partner, but she can’t manage it when she’s looking at her so earnestly. She’s shed her blazer, white shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbow, hair so bright and golden it practically glows in the shed’s dimness.

“No, I – ”

Yang doesn’t even wait for the answer, just steps behind Blake, resting one hand on her back as she easily plucks the flags off the top shelf. “And what are these for?” she asks, leaning close to Blake.

“For Sports Day,” Blake says, glancing down at Yang’s lips before looking back up at her eyes. “Or have you already forgotten about it?”

“You work too hard.”

“ _You_ are student council president,” Blake says. “Shouldn’t you be more concerned?”

“I just got out of a meeting with all the professors about it,” Yang says. “I win. Besides,” and her voice drops lower on that word, as she gently backs Blake into the wall. “We haven’t had a moment alone in so long.”

When Yang brushes her lips against Blake, just the lightest touch makes Blake’s whole body snap to attention. Even if Blake doesn’t have feelings for her, she can’t deny that Yang possesses her own gravity, makes any space she’s in bend and distort toward her. This close, one of Yang’s hands braced against the wall and the other resting on her hip, eyes the softest color of lilac she’s ever seen, it’s a wonder Blake even remembers her own name.

Yang kisses her hungrily, with a quiet desperation Blake’s come to expect. She always kisses her like she’s expecting Blake to change her mind about their arrangement, and this is the last time she’ll ever get to. As if Blake would ever walk away now.

Yang Xiao Long. Beacon Academy’s youngest student council president in history, and her partner, and a mystery for Blake to solve since the moment she arrived here. She’d pulled her into all her student council activities, including organizing this Sports Day, a friendly competition between all the teams at Beacon as a way to prepare for the Vytal Festival and amp up school spirit. She didn’t entirely mind it, being a part of something, being a part of Yang’s orbit, succumbing to her natural gravity.

And being loved by her.

When she came to Beacon, Blake spent weeks trying to unravel her, the golden girl that everyone loved. She knew there had to be more beneath the surface, especially when Yang had kissed her so spontaneously soon after their meeting. Not every pair of partners ended up in a relationship, but it seemed Yang had an interest in her.

She’d confronted her while they were out in Vale one evening, pausing by a stream that ran beneath a bridge where the train tracks crossed over it. Yang was jumping on a stone path in the stream. It was close to sunset, the whole world drawn in outlines of golden light, and the wind smelled like the springtime lilies now coming into bloom.

Blake stayed by the edge of the water and said, “I think I figured it out.”

“What’s that?” Yang asked, pausing on a rock, but not turning around.

“Why you always act so…annoyingly perfect all the time.”

“Aw, you think I’m annoying?”

“Only when you’re pretending,” Blake says. “And trying so hard. But it’s…because of her. Your mom.”

Yang still wouldn’t turn to look at her.

“Summer Rose,” Blake clarified, since Ruby had told her about Yang’s birth mom, too. “She was student council president, too, when she was at Beacon. Everyone loved her, and you want to be just like her.”

The silence from Yang was deafening, even over the low rumble in the train tracks above them that signaled a train was close.

Blake took a tentative step toward the edge of the water. “But then she…Yang, I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I can’t imagine what it was like to lose her. But you’re your own person. You don’t have to pretend to be so perfect, or pretend to be her. You can just be yourself.” Blake swallowed, hard.

The leaves on the trees stirred and the grass rippled, the water making gentle gurgling sounds where it ran around the stones. The train tracks above them were vibrating now, and the railroad crossing signs were flashing red, warning sounds ringing. One of her cat ears twitched when she heard the train whistle.

“Blake,” Yang said, turning around.

She thought for a moment that Yang would be angry, that perhaps she’d delved too far into her personal life, that she’d see her partner’s eyes flicker red when she looked at her. But the wind blew her hair back and her face was perfectly serene, calmer than Blake had ever seen it.

Yang continued, “I would rather die than hear any of that ever again.”

The train roared above them, the incessant noise of the railroad crossing ringing louder than Blake’s pounding heartbeat in her ears. The wind buffeted them both, tearing at their clothes, sending their hair flying around them. Blake could only gape as the train passed and the world stilled, ripples spreading and dissipating in the water.

“When my mom died, everyone was devastated,” Yang said. “Including me. Sitting at her funeral…it didn’t even feel real. But Ruby was still so little, and my dad, he just shut down. Everyone wanted her back. She was so kind and hopeful and loving, and when I did that for others, for Ruby when she needed me…everyone loved me, too. They thought I was special.”

“You don’t have to make anyone love you – ”

“Didn’t you think so?” Yang tilts her head, studying Blake.

“Think what?”

“That I was special. When we first met. I know how I felt about you, but I saw the way you looked at me, too. Even if it wasn’t love.”

Blake licked her dry lips. Of course she had. Everyone did. And Yang believed she had proved her point, so she was turning away, to jump to the other side of the stream. She had thought Yang would listen to what she had to say. This girl had kissed her twice, after all, had expressed a desire to stay by Blake’s side. Now she was slipping away.

“Yang!” She steeled herself and leapt onto one of the stones.

Yang half-turned toward her, eyes obscured by the hair falling in her face.

“You’re my partner,” Blake said. “And I want –” _I want to fall in love with you_.

Whenever she looked at her, Blake could see it, the way Yang’s eyes would shine and her skin would flush pink. Blake didn’t feel those things – after Adam, she’s not sure she ever knew what love was, or if she could fall for someone at all. Love was always so beautiful in all the books she’d read, and she’d never been able to capture that feeling for her own, not even with Yang, who expressed her desire so openly. But if she had to choose, she wanted it to be Yang. She wanted to return her affections one day. If she could.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to love you,” Blake said. “The real you or the perfect you. But I still want to stay.”

As Blake leapt onto another stone, closing the distance between them, Yang turned to face her. “Really?”

“If you ask me to stay by your side, then that’s what I’ll do,” Blake said. “I just need you to tell me what it is you really want. So…tell me?”

Now Yang jumped onto one of the stones, coming closer to Blake, and smiling. “I want you to stay by my side.”

“Okay.”

“When I’m lonely, be there for me,” Yang said, not quite making eye contact, but with a hopeful expression on her face.

Blake hopped onto a couple stones – it was easier now, her footing surer as she drew closer to Yang. “I can do that.”

“Don’t develop feelings for anyone else,” Yang said. “And what you’re feeling now, don’t let it become hate.”  
She’d met Yang in the middle now, and they stood face to face as she nodded, agreeing to all of it. The ripples in the stream were gone now, the water smooth and shining, and the setting sun poured light onto it. Between the sky and the stream, she felt lost in a sea of golden light.

“Um…could we hold hands?” Yang asked.

“You’re ridiculous,” Blake said, but she was already smiling and holding out her hand.

When Blake pulls away from their kiss in the shed, still pressed against the wall, Yang tries to follow her, to recapture her lips with her own. But Blake pushes her away when she leans in.

“Come on,” she says. “We don’t have time for this. _You_ don’t have time for this.”

Yang makes a noise that Blake can only characterize as a whine. “Maybe you’re right,” she says. “But in that case, I want a reward. When Sports Day is over.”

“A reward?” Blake rolls her eyes, but plays along. “What kind of reward?”

She leans back, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking on her heels. “I want _you_ to kiss _me_. It’s always me kissing you.”

“And if I do that, you’ll be happy?”

“Maybe.”

Yang grins and Blake can’t help but say, “Okay.”

~

“Who are we?”

“Team RWBY!”

“What did we come here to do?”

“Kick butt!”

Ruby and Yang cheer as they put their hands in a circle and throw them up in the air. Blake and Weiss mumble the chants along with them, less enthusiastic despite the sparkle in Yang’s eyes and the sheer number of fist pumps she’d done that day.

“Can the two of you at least _pretend_ to be excited?” Yang asks, crossing her arms.

“I think we did a wonderful job planning this event,” Weiss says. “And that’s something to be excited about. But really, Yang, you think we can win in a foot race when Ruby’s not allowed to use her semblance?”

“Hey, nobody is allowed to use their semblance, and I’m still pretty fast on my own!” Ruby says.

Blake shrugs. Not that she’d ever openly agree with Weiss, but she has a point.

“Xiao Long? Do you really think you stand a chance at winning?”

Coco Adel is striding toward them, flanked by her team, sunglasses glinting, hoop earrings swinging by her jaw, glamorous even in Beacon Academy sweats. She puts her hands on her hips and smirks at Yang.

Yang scowls. “Don’t let experience turn into arrogance, Adel. It’ll taste pretty bitter when you watch me cross that finish line before you.”

“Oh yeah –”

Blake tunes them out as Yang and Coco trade barbs like they’re meeting on the battlefield. She leans over to Weiss and asks,

“So what’s their deal?”

Weiss tosses her ponytail over one shoulder. “They have a long-standing rivalry, of course. You haven’t noticed them in our sparring classes?”

“I…” The only member of team CVFY she’d ever even spoken to is Velvet, so no, she can’t say she’s ever noticed. “I guess I just had my own stuff going on.”

“They’re a little juvenile,” Weiss says. “But that’s why Yang wants to win so badly.”

“Then I guess we should try for her sake, huh?”

Weiss gives her a look like she’d just scraped something off the bottom of her shoe. “I guess we should. For _Yang_.”

Her teammate walks away then, and Blake sighs. Ruby offers her a smile, saying,

“It’s okay…you know how Weiss is.”

“I feel like she dislikes me in particular. But maybe you’re right, and it’s just how she is.”

“Her and Yang are pretty close, you know? Weiss is pretty attached to her, anyway.”

Blake’s ears flatten underneath her bow. “I’m not trying to get in the way of that.”

Ruby pats her on the shoulder. “Yeah, but you’re Yang’s partner now and everything…”

She trails off as Yang breaks it off with Coco to grab them by the arms, saying, “Come on! It’s almost time to start and we need to do warm-ups!”

Ruby would run first, then pass the baton to Blake, she’d pass it to Weiss, and then Yang would take it home for them. They couldn’t have picked a more perfect day for Sports Day if they had tried – the sky is a blue so pure and bright it hurts to look at, and a gentle breeze is blowing. Just before she goes to take her spot on the track, Yang suddenly catches her, pulling her in by the elbow and whispering by her ear,

“I’ve been good all day, so I’m looking forward to that reward.”

The day’s strong sun had brought out Yang’s freckles, and Blake can count them all over her tan skin when they’re this close. She releases Blake as quickly as she’d grabbed her and jogs off to take her own position. Somehow, Blake feels more nervous about fulfilling their agreement than she does about the race itself. Surely, though, she can kiss Yang without any problem. She doesn’t even love her – can’t even feel what love _is_. So a kiss should be nothing.

When the race starts, Ruby tears away from the starting line. The students not participating cheer on the sidelines, and Blake tries to just block out all the noise, and focus on starting to move as Ruby is approaching her. She slaps the baton into her hand with a cheer of her name and Blake is off, running hard. She had to at least try and win. For Yang.

The last time Blake had run with such all-out abandon, it’d been when she was fleeing through the red foliage of Forever Fall, all too paranoid Adam would leap off that train and pursue her. But he hadn’t, so she’d run for her freedom. She doesn’t want to think about him, now, anyway, and forces the thought aside as she approaches Weiss.

She passes off the baton to Weiss and retreats to the center of the track, to watch the rest of the race with Ruby. As she catches her breath, Weiss runs her section of the race, while Yang hops from foot to foot at her place, a bundle of potential energy ready to fire off toward the finish line. As Weiss passes her the baton, Yang charges, Coco sprinting just beside her.

When Ruby cheers for her, Blake realizes she should probably do the same. She cups her hands around her mouth and sucks in any remaining breath, screaming,

“Go, Yang!”

Picking her out of the other runners is easy – even for a foot race, Yang had refused to tie her long hair into a ponytail, so it flies freely behind her, the sun catching it and making it shimmer like fiery golden Dust. Blake had only ever seen that determined look in her eyes on the battlefield, so at odds with her usual fun-loving nature. But there is a certain kind of beauty to Yang when she has her mind set on something, and she goes after it with all she has.

Blake lowers her hands as Yang breaks for the finish line. Sweat gleams on her neck and forehead, and warmth rushes into Blake’s cheeks as she notices her toned biceps every time she pumps her arms, her hands curled into the same fists she wields for a fight. That’s the thing about Yang: power simmers beneath the surface of her, the tension of a spark about to ignite just beneath her skin. But so often when they’re together, Yang does something like massage the back of Blake’s hand when she’s stressed, or ask in a tone barely above a whisper if she can kiss her.

She wonders if anyone else in the world knows about the gentleness of her. Of the way she loves. The thought makes her heart skip a beat.

When the crowd cheers as the race is over, it startles Blake, who tears her eyes away from Yang. When Ruby stomps her foot and team CVFY rushes to their leader, she realizes that they had lost. Or rather, team RWBY had come in third. Blake should probably feel sad, but she looks at Yang, catching her breath at the finish line.

Yang catches her eye and grins at her.

~

“You know, when you said _after_ Sports Day, I didn’t think you meant right after,” Blake says, as Yang is dragging her into the storage shed where they’d first made this agreement.

They’re still wearing their same sweaty athletic wear from Sports Day, but Yang slides the door shut behind them. “I was good, wasn’t I?”

Blake shakes her head and tries not to think of the image of her running. “You were.”

With the door closed, only a few beams of sunlight make their way into shed, illuminating the swirling specks of dust. Blake wants to make a joke about how this place is the least romantic setting they could’ve chosen, but for some reason, she can’t seem to get the words out. Yang slides down the wall and grabs Blake’s hand, pulling her down with her.

Yang sits with her legs sticking straight out, so Blake has no choice but to straddle Yang’s waist as she pulls her into her lap. Her partner is looking up at her, smiling, and she twirls a piece of Blake’s hair around one finger.

“Well?” Yang asks softly. “I’m ready for my kiss.”

“I know, I know,” Blake is holding up her hands, unsure of what to do with them, where to put them.

The two of them had kissed before. She just has to do what they’ve always done. Except she has to be the one to lean into Yang, to make that choice to have their lips meet. As if sensing her hesitation, Yang takes her hands and puts them on her shoulders, then wraps her arms around Blake’s waist.

“Don’t look so stressed,” Yang says.

Blake nods, moving one hand to cup Yang’s cheeks. Her skin is so soft, and she strokes Yang’s cheek with her thumb, hoping it might ground her, but it only makes her feel more flustered. When she leans into her, Yang closes her eyes. They’re close enough that Blake can feel her breath on her lips, the erratic, expectant rise and fall of Yang’s chest. Blake feels strangely lightheaded. Though the shed itself is musty, Yang smells like sweat, and the faintest note of her citrus shampoo.

Her lips are usually as soft as her skin feels. Blake just has to close the distance between them, and she closes her eyes, hoping that will help, but suddenly there he is, stamped against the inside of her eyelids. Adam. The cruel line of his mouth when _he_ had kissed her, and she had thought the roughness of it, the way her stomach dropped, the way her heart sometimes sped up when she heard his footsteps approaching, she’d thought that was love.

But it wasn’t. Maybe it was in the beginning – but then why had it always felt so different from what she’d read in a book, that shining, gold thread that could connect her heart to someone else’s? It had never felt further from her now, even far away from Adam’s grasp. Yet still he lingered even now, in the shadows when she walked back to the dorm after sunset, or in her nightmares when she woke and expected to see him lying next to her. His voice, even, still whispered in the back of her mind sometimes, reminding her how incompetent or cowardly she is.

She had never known what love was. And maybe she never will, now that she is so broken, she can’t even give Yang this one thing.

“I…I can’t,” Blake whispers, turning away from Yang’s face.

Yang opens her eyes. “Blake? Why not?”

“It just…it doesn’t feel right,” Blake says. “For me to kiss you when I don’t even love you.”

To her surprise, Yang tucks a piece of hair behind her ear, smoothing back the rest of her hair. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

“No!” The word comes out louder than Blake intends, but she still turns back to Yang. “You didn’t do anything wrong…you didn’t make me uncomfortable. I promise.”

“Oh. In that case…” Yang gently grabs Blake’s chin, saying, “I still want that reward. If that’s okay with you.”

Blake’s skin feels hot. Hotter than it should for a mere spring day, but she says in barely a whisper, “That’s fine.”

She kisses her, and with the one hand still on Yang’s shoulder, Blake grips the coarse fabric of her T-shirt. The same hunger is there, Yang pulling her into her, until Blake has no choice but to lean against her to stay upright. Her mouth tastes sweet, like maybe she’d somehow had time to put on chapstick between the race and dragging her here. Or maybe that’s just how her lips always taste.

Yang gently nips her lower lip, running one hand up her side and then her back, tracing her spine, and Blake suppresses a shiver but can’t quiet the soft gasp at the touch of Yang’s teeth. When her partner’s tongue slips into her mouth, Blake almost falls over from the surprise of it, her breath catching. It’s far wetter and messier than their other kisses, sparking to life with a reckless passion she’d assign to Yang, but not necessarily to herself.

They break apart, both panting slightly, the taste of Yang’s lips still lingering. “Was that okay?” Yang asks.

“Um…” Blake lifts a hand to her lips, as if to confirm by touch what she felt. “It honestly felt…kind of good.”

Yang nods. “Good. That’s how it should feel.”

“Do you remember when I mentioned that I’d been in just one relationship?” Blake asks, quietly, afraid to make eye contact with her partner.

“I do.”

“It never felt like that,” she says.

Yang brings her hands up to hold Blake’s cheeks, holding her face in her hands. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” she says, looking back at Yang, but feeling strangely comforted with her face in her hands. She’d expected some kind of horror or disgust in Yang’s eyes, written on her face, but they’re the same gentle color of lilac, looking right at her. “I don’t really…know anymore.”

“That’s okay,” Yang says, smiling. “I’m glad you’re here now. And that you’re my partner.”

Blake smiles and ignores the tears that prick at the corner of her eyes when Yang says those words. “I’m glad you’re my partner, too. Do you think…we could do that one more time?”

“What?” Yang leans forward, one hand sliding into her hair, cupping the back of her head as she brushes their lips together. “This?”

Blake closes her eyes and apparently that’s enough for Yang, because then they’re kissing again, and she allows her to lean forward and be caught and held up in Yang’s arms. Yang has this way of taking Blake out of herself, out of her usual racing thoughts, about the past or otherwise, and replacing all the anxieties with more grounded sensations, like the sharp line of her jaw Blake feels when she traces it, the warmth of her skin, the gentle bite of her once again nipping at Blake’s lip.

Sometimes Blake feels incorporeal, like the pieces of herself might blow away and scatter if she lets her thoughts drift for too long. Yang makes her feel more real than she has in a long time, like she finally has something tying her to the earth.

Long after they stop kissing, Yang buries her face in Blake’s shoulder, and Blake buries her face in Yang’s wild hair, and they hold each other as the sun starts to go down, until Yang is the only golden thing left in the shed. Pressed together, Blake can hear a heartbeat, but it must be Yang’s. It can’t be hers.

It’s beating way too fast.

**Author's Note:**

> Bloom Into You is one of my favorite anime/manga ever, a story that I can say truly changed me, so doing this crossover with RWBY and bumbleby made me SO happy. if you made it down here, thank you for reading!! I'm so happy to have shared this with you, and make sure to check out my friend and collaborator's art, too!
> 
> as always, hang out with me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/dandelionsnight) or [Tumblr!](https://dandelionsknight.tumblr.com/)


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